C&C Labs News Wire

— Sunday, September 28, 2003 —

Fresh off the presses, I've got a bunch of new Zero Hour screenshots and wallpapers for you to feast your eyes on. They're all courtesy of Sagi, who sent them to me. Here are some of the new wallpapers that I've just added:

As you can see, they're all different screens from within Zero Hour itself, but they make great desktop backgrounds. To download any of the above and others, click here.

I've also just finished adding some new screenshots from Zero Hour. Sagi took them while fighting a great battle. They show many of the new units in the expansion. Here's a few of their thumbnails:

You can see the full-sized version of these screenshots by clicking on them. To see more of the new screenshots, head on over to our Zero Hour Screenshots page. Enjoy!

GameSpot is a well known respectable site, they have a review on Zero Hour, and of course more new Zero Hour screenshots and a new (exclusive to GameSpot) video review, this video is available only for GameSpot members, which can be found here.GameSpot's review talks about the new generals challenge, the campaign missions, the new buildings, the new generals powers, about the old cnc games, the gameplay in Zero Hour and about the new generals.

Click on one of the review links to view the review.

Last edited by Sagi on Friday, September 26, 2003 at 7:47:50 AM.

— Friday, September 26, 2003 —

You can now find some of the new info from Zero Hour for all the three sides there.There are also more downloads, and you can find the new Fansite Kit which has three sounds out of each general from Zero Hour. The rest of the kit is pictures, some of them are exclusive.There is also a new startegy guide, this guide is for the Zero Hour Challange mode.They also listed up the Fansites List.

Now that Zero Hour is out the door, we are also going to be working on patch 1.7 for Generals. We’re retrofitting some of the bug fixes that were made for Zero Hour into Generals and trying to add a few minor Zero Hour features, as well. No timeline yet, as we just started working on it, but we’ll keep everyone updated.

Last edited by Mike on Friday, September 26, 2003 at 2:50:35 PM.

— Thursday, September 25, 2003 —

I've got a few community updates for everyone this afternoon. First of all, CnC Sector has closed its doors.

Why you ask? Well Generals hasn't lived up to my standards of a 'true' CNC game, and Zero Hour certainly won't.. obviously as a webmaster, you need a certain amount of motivation to keep you going on running/operation the site, and.. well, Generals has killed that.

You can click here for the full message. CnC Matrix is also currently down, as Malc explains, because "I did something which I didn't think would effect anything but resulted in my host deleting all of the files and databases without giving me any warning...". The site should be back online by Monday, hopefully. To see the full message and explanation, click here.

And on a slightly better note, here are a couple of updates from Mike (EAComMike).

Hey all,

I wanted to update everyone on several things this afternoon. First off, Command & Conquer™ Generals Zero Hour has shipped and should start appearing in stores if it hasn't already. The team is ready and waiting to see if any issues pop up requiring immediate attention. Players can expect to see the chat monitors in the lobbies for the next few weeks.

As mentioned in a previous news update, a few members of the Generals development team will be at EB in Westwood, Los Angeles, CA this Friday from 5:00-7:00. For more deatails on this, read our previous news message.

Here are a couple of other items the team has plannedWe’re making some multiplayer maps for free distribution in the near future. Generally just playing the game and having fun. We’re taking a short rest. Many of us just got back from a week long break. Reading the message boards and looking for player feedback & thoughts on ZH. Thanks to Deezire for the kind words. Continuing work on LOTR which was announced yesterday.EAComMike and the rest of the Generals team!

FYI - This is being posted in the forums because we're in the process of updating the Generals website. At the moment, the tool I use to publish with isn't working.

You can see that post in the Official Forums here. Here's another couple posts that were in the forums, in regards to graphic problems and performance with Zero Hour:

Possible Microwave Tank ProblemWe have a new unit in the game called the US Microwave Tank. It produces a cool effect around the unit to simulate microwaves. However, it’s a pretty tricky effect that some video cards can’t handle. We auto-detect any systems that can’t draw the effect correctly and don’t show the effect in those cases. However, if there is a system that we aren’t detecting properly, the user may get a visual problem. It could be anything ranging from an ugly, multicolored graphical distortion around the unit to an incredibly slow frame rate (1-2 FPS) to a black screen. In every case, the problem goes away when the unit is destroyed.

One quick solution to this problem is that we give users the option to turn this effect off manually. From the Main Menu, if they go to the Options screen and set their detail level to Custom and turn off Heat Effects, the problem should be corrected.

If this fix doesn’t work, or if you see any commonalities among machines that seem to have this problem, that information would be helpful to us. We have heard a few reports that the Radeon 9700 Pro has problems, but we have also seen that machine work just fine, so we’re trying to gather more data.

Send any helpful information to this email address and I'll pass it along: generals@ea.com

To get the best performance...You must have an AGP video card. PCI video cards are generally much slower than their AGP counterparts. PCI cards are normally below the minimum game spec.

Make sure to turn off automatic anti-virus protection. This is usually located on the bottom of your screen in your PC tool bar. Simply right click and turn off. Remember to turn back on when exiting the game.

Make sure your audio & video drivers are updated. This can be done by visiting their respective website and following instructions.

Also remember that if you're having any technical problems with Generals or Zero Hour you can ask for help in our Tech Questions forum!

— Tuesday, September 23, 2003 —

Does anyone know if Zero Hour has been delayed? The guy at Electronics Boutique told me the shipment was delayed but I have been unable to confirm that through anyone. In the East Coast of the US it appears not ot have arrived yet.

More info will come soon.

Edit By Luckie: Most likely, this is a delay on the part of Electronics Boutique. Although this is a top release, many stores go through multiple (or atleast one) middle man. Generals.EA.com says "Release: Current" so thats what I would take as correct. Many loosely knit chain stores *like EB* as well as 'Mom and Pop' stores take up to or maybe more than a week to get a new game in. Sometimes you just have to be patient.

Last edited by Luckie on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 at 6:26:43 AM.

— Sunday, September 21, 2003 —

According to this table from GameSpy, GameSpy was supposed to release the GLA generals pages on Thursday. They haven't officially released these pages yet according to this page. If they had released it, I assume that they would have linked it on that page under the link of the USA generals and China generals pages. I guess that someone guessed the address. You can go here to see the first GLA general on the pages and see that one of the icons, cameos, is missing, anyway it's not finished yet (I guess). You can also visit this page and this page for the other two GLA generals.As of what I read, it supposed to be completed tomorrow; we'll just have to wait and see.

Edit by MicScoTho: Gamespy has now "officially" released the GLA Generals page.

Last edited by Mike on Monday, September 22, 2003 at 6:49:52 AM.

— Saturday, September 20, 2003 —

First of all, the site named Project Perfect Mod (PPM) has posted over 30 new Zero Hour exclusive screenshots that shows both the USA missions and China's missions. Go here for the USA missions screen shoots and go here for China's missions screenshots.

Over at C&C Den, Lion had posted 9 exclusive screenshots sent to him by a fan, Cyan Army from Brazil.See three of them here and another six of them here.

— Saturday, September 20, 2003 —

IGN has released 13 New Zero Hour videos in high and low quality.Visit this page to download and see all videos.Also the new USA official trailer of Zero Hour has been released at GameSpot.You can download this Official Trailer #4 from this page.

Last edited by Sagi on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 3:48:25 PM.

— Friday, September 19, 2003 —

On this page, the Official CnC Generals Website reports that the Zero Hour development team will be headed for EB Games in Westwood Village in LA, California on Friday, September 26th. For full details, head here.

— Friday, September 19, 2003 —

They are not our exclusive zero hour screenshots but AllGusto's.In this thread you can find 5 screenshots that Ubertek0 has posted, as the main subject of that topic says, "AllGusto has * Zero Hour * !!!!".Check the screenshots here.

Update from MicScoTho:After contacting Ubertek0 I have posted these five screenshots in our Zero Hour Screenshots Images Gallery. Be sure to check them out if you haven't already. Oh, and by the way, they're from the Portuguese version of Zero Hour. Thanks go to AllGusto for the screenshots! Here are a couple of their thumbnails:

Last edited by Mike on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 4:18:15 PM.

— Friday, September 19, 2003 —

A new Flash game from EA called Command & Conquer: Comanche which can be played at this address, you need an EA account to play, so sign in.This flash game offers more than 10 missions where you control the RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter and fight against GLA troops. The game is fun and has good graphics. There's also tokens, and jackpot spinner (I don't know what they are for, I think you can win prizes with those).Have fun.

Last edited by Sagi on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 4:15:59 AM.

— Thursday, September 18, 2003 —

Just want to let everyone know that the long-awaited GW mod Real Threat needs beta testers. We will be accepting applications at Blbpaws@cncgeneralsworld.com. First come first serve basis. You must have Generals and a reasonably fast computer.

— Wednesday, September 17, 2003 —

Thanks to Luckie's work, we've just added over 15 new screenshots that we previously did not have to our Zero Hour Images Gallery. Be sure to check them out as you may find one you haven't seen before! Here's a couple of their thumbnails for good measure:

— Wednesday, September 17, 2003 —

FilePlanet have a page with all the new videos of Zero Hour, well, except for three videos of China Generals, I'm not sure if there are anyway.You can download and see the three new GLA Generals videos from this page and the new trailer of the GLA for ZH.Click to visit the page.

Last edited by Sagi on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 at 7:55:48 AM.

— Friday, September 12, 2003 —

Yes, EA has announced that Generals has gone GOLD! For anyone that doesn't know, a game goes gold when it has finished all testing in the Quality Control and has sent the master copy to a reproduction plant. After the cds have been produced, they are sent back to the developer to check for any glitches that might have come up during the production. Now the discs are ready to be stamped into jewel cases and placed in the final box for shipping. Here is EA's official announcement:

Command & Conquer™ Generals Zero Hour has gone gold and will start to ship on Monday, September 22. The first expansion pack to one of the best-selling PC games of 2003, Command & Conquer Generals, gives players more weapons, more power, new battlefields, three new single-player campaigns, 15 new missions, and new game modes.

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour features a new Generals Challenge mode which allows players to control any of the unique armies of nine distinctive Generals in head-to-head competition against computer-controlled Generals. Each General has a unique strength and is equipped with a special army. In three new singleplayer campaigns players will continue to take charge of three different armies, the Global Liberation Army (GLA), China, or the USA. With new weapons such as the US Spectre Gunship, GLA combat motorcycles, and Chinese Helix helicopters, players will select from a surplus of new high-tech weaponry and an assortment of new units and structures in their quest for global domination.

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour was developed by EA LA and is being published under the EA GAMES brand. The game is rated “T” (Teen) by the ESRB and has a US MSRP of $29.99. The original Command & Conquer Generals game is required in order to play Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour. Additional information can be found at www.generals.ea.com or www.info.ea.com.

In other news, but just as good. Elite Gaming Network has announced plans for the 2003 CNC Community Awards. This is an anual event where the people of the community decide on the best site. Info can be found at the official site HERE.

— Thursday, September 11, 2003 —

After the server trouble, CNCNZ is now back online. A lot of stuff, including files, news posts and forum posts, have been lost. It's good that they've got a backup, even though it's not really anything near recent. Check CNCNZ out to see for yourself.

— Tuesday, September 9, 2003 —

A great new feature from CNCSeries.com by SiN.It's called Statistics Index which is where you can find all the information needed on ALL the buildings and units in the game.Including Health, Experience, Vision, Speed, Weapon and Economic information and also Armour Classes and Bonus Modifiers. ALL in there!So check it out by clicking here.

— Monday, September 8, 2003 —

What is CQC you ask? This is EA’s Quality Control department that all products must go through before being approved for release. We’re hoping for Zero Hour approval no later than Monday Sept 8, 2003. Hey, that's today! From there we create a “glass” master and then make a “silver”. We then send the “Silver” for approval and once it passes this process the game goes into duplication. All this is a coordinated dance performed by our production services department. If all goes well, we’ll ship Zero Hour around the world on Sept 22, 2003.

He also said that the Dev team held an inner-staff tourament. The replays of the finals of this tourney will be released some time after ZH ships. Get all the details HERE.

— Sunday, September 7, 2003 —

The mod from CnC Matrix, SecondWave Beta 2.3 is now out, you can see the old and new features of it and also download that modification from this page (in the page below), it weighs about 23.6MB, pretty big.

— Sunday, September 7, 2003 —

After a month and a bit of CnC Sector being down, it's now back online and has been improved.Here's from the welcome message,

As you probably know by now, we had to move servers again due to various issues. It has taken us about between a 1-2 months to get the site up again but we've finally done it. We used this time to update alot of our content and to 'clean up' various bits of the site. Our forums are online, so why not drop by and say hi, or something. :) Our downloads database is back online, though I do believe there are some problems server-wise affecting some files at the moment, so we'll keep you updated on that. We are now accepting file uploads again, so if you've got a map, a mod, whatever - please do upload it to us. Thats all for now.. lastly, I'd just like to thank the current CNCS staff for all working hard and being dedicated to bringing the site up, and thanks to our fans and the community for the support and patience.

— Thursday, September 4, 2003 —

The site of Light Of Five Stars (LOFS) mod has been launched at cnc.unleashed.ws.The mod adds nine new Generals, naval units and buildings, cool new skins and new units.

Here's a bit from the welcome post,

The Main aim of Project LOFS is to restore and re-introduce classical weapons of the known armies of the world, mainly weapons from the Chinese PLA (People's Liberation Army), the US Army, and any from the "Land of the Believers" (GLA). In addition to tradition ground combat and limited air missions, Project LOFS will be begin to expand into the vastly unexplored void of Naval warfare, which may be the long-waited addition to Generals Play.

— Tuesday, September 2, 2003 —

I'm just reminding everyone that the Generals World Fan Map Contest will end in exactly ONE WEEK, on September 8th. Be sure to send your maps in if you want a t-shirt signed by the development team! You can submit your maps through this page. If you have any problems with that page, then please email me and let me know.

I'd also like to thank everyone who has already submitted a map! We have received all the maps that you've submitted. We will be sending out emails confirming that we have received your map(s) in a day or two.